


After the End as the Beginning

by swordPrincess



Category: Homestuck
Genre: F/M, M/M, Post-Game, Slice of Life
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2012-10-09
Updated: 2012-10-12
Packaged: 2017-11-16 00:20:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 2,616
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/533401
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/swordPrincess/pseuds/swordPrincess
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Years after the end, Jade is pregnant with Dave’s baby, and Jake and Dirk are over to visit.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. End Start

**Author's Note:**

> Mostly just some random conversation I thought of while walking around outside. Written awhile ago on my tumblr, now posted here. Currently unfinished. If anyone has suggestions as to a direction to go with it after I've posted what I have so far, please go for it.

"I still sort of can't believe you are having a baby," Jake remarked, his hand on Jade's ever growing belly.

Jade smiled back at her relative as he returned to his seat. He continued speaking, "Although, I'm not really sure what I'll be to the baby. Our exact relationship is still confusing to me. Will I be a grandfather, or...?" He scratched his head.

"Why don't you just consider yourself an uncle and call it a day," a voice spoke up from beside him, and Jake turned to look at his stoic-faced boyfriend leaning back in his chair and making the front legs come off the floor. "You are really over complicating things here."

"That's easy for you to say, Dirk," he responded, "at least the alternate versions of you and Dave considered yourselves brothers, so it's simple for you to think of yourself like that. But me and Jade considered our alternate selves our grandparents! Shucks, it's confusing. If I went by that, would the baby be my great-grandchild? Or...my aunt or uncle?" His expression twisted in a mass of confusion.

"Here, I'm going to make this real simple for you." Dave leaned across the table toward him. "You are the uncle. It's you."

"But wouldn't John be more like the uncle?" Jake asked, still uncertain.

"The baby can have more than one uncle, Jake," Jade told him with a tint of amusement in her voice.

"Seriously, dude, you are the same age as us, just...go with it," Dave commented.

A small thump could be heard as Dirk came back down with the chair. He put his hand to his chin with a somewhat sardonic look on his face. "Says the guy that still sometimes calls Roxy, 'Mom'."

Dave turned his face away. "Rose got me into that habit, okay? It's become sort of hard to break. And she seems to like it? I don't know...weird...fucking...Lalondes." He seemed a bit irritated.

Various chuckles were heard around the table at this response. Roxy did seem to have this weird maternal kick, especially since she'd met Rose and Dave, and it'd never really stopped.

"Well, it's still really cool that there will be a baby related to both of us," Jake said, changing the subject back, "right Dirk?" The question was slightly pointed. Shortly after they'd first learned of Jade's pregnancy, they'd had a short ectobiology discussion, that then became a Discussion, and then something of an Argument. Dirk was certain he would not be a good parent, and would not be swayed on the issue.

"Yeah, sure, related to us. And Roxy. And Jane."

"Still."

"Babies are overrated anyway."

Jake gave him a Stare.

"Don't look at me like that."

It continued.

"Stop it."

It didn't stop.

"Jesus Dick on a fucking popsicle stick, will you quit it?"

Jake finally looked away from him. "Babies are AWESOME," he said, with some passion.

"What can you even do with them?" Dirk asked dismissively. "They are soft and aren't good for anything and they poop a lot. I suppose they are really easy throwing practice-" He wasn't really serious, it was just an over-exaggeration for Jake's benefit, but he felt the dark glare coming from Jade in an instant, which cut him off short.

"Dirk Strider," she said slowly, and with audible warning, "we are in peace now, and if you so much as lay a finger on this baby in a violent way, I will make you wish the paradox slime that created you had never been zapped."

Jade had always been a force to be reckoned with when she was angry, but it was somehow amplified with her pregnancy.

Dirk put his hands up in surrender. "I'm sorry, Jade. It was an inappropriate joke. I'm sorry."

The menace disappeared and she smiled sweetly at him. This almost made him more uneasy.

Meanwhile, Dave gave him a look. "Okay, you are no longer allowed to call me whipped. You aren’t even with her. That was embarrassing."

"Bro," was all Dirk said in return, but his tone clearly communicated to Dave, 'pregnant women are scary'.


	2. Bros

Dave gave no response to Dirk, and continued looking at him as he was, despite the fact that he knew very well Jade's temperament. Better than anyone else, really.

Dirk turned toward Jake now. "Support me on this, man."

Jake gave a little laugh. "Sure, bro." But he didn't actually say anything in support.

Dave changed expression then. "Speaking of names people call each other, why is it that you still call each other 'bro' sometimes? I mean it's cool that you fell in love with your best bro or whatever, but seriously. You'd think you'd stop calling each other that after you started fucking," he deadpanned.

"Dave!" Jade yelled at him and smacked his chest with the back of her hand.

Jake reddened with embarrassment.

Dirk was nonplussed. "First of all, I am a bro." He pointed to himself with his thumb. "That is something that I am. So as far as I'm concerned, anyone is free to call me that for as long as I live." He moved his hand slightly downward now, and palm up. "But then you were referring to the mutual calling of 'bro' between Jake and myself, so let me explain."

"Oh this ought to be good."

"Aren't all of my lessons?" Dirk asked, as if Dave had said that seriously, which Dirk knew he didn't. But that was the joke. "The word 'bro' actually has some different nuances of meaning which can be used to refer to people in different ways. The most obvious, of course, being simply short for 'brother', as in a genetic relation. Something like you and me, for instance. Although, 'brother' is not our exact genetics, it's just that I think our exact relation there can go violently screw itself in the bathroom. But I digress. Secondly, this was also historically used between members of certain groups, to refer to each other as family, despite not being blood relations, especially in the case of certain ethnic minorities. It was then also used between the sort of insufferable tools that you and I ironically emulate."

Dave raised an eyebrow. It tried to silently point out that Dirk did not sound like he was emulating said tools right now, ironically or not, and instead sounded a fuck lot more like a college professor. Dirk completely ignored this and continued talking. "Now the definition I mean when I refer to Jake as my bro is another nuance, which is more to say, my very close male friend whom I trust with my life. And that isn't something that has stopped being true just because he is also my boyfriend. In fact, I'd like to think that what we've developed is actually the Nirvana of that relationship, so to speak."

Jake smiled wide at this, and snaked an arm around Dirk to hold him. "I love you, Dirk."

"I love you too Jake," came the response.

Dave looked at them both now, an eyebrow still raised. "B'awww, ain’t that cute," he said slyly.

Dirk whipped his head back toward Dave. "We aren't cute. We're manly as fuck," he corrected.

Jake was smiling, though. "For the record, I think you and Jade are rather frigging cute yourselves."

Jade reached over for Dave's hand and smiled. "Thanks, Jake!"

"Yeah, thank you, Jake," Dave said, while actually looking at Dirk. "See? I can take my compliments like a man."

Jade sighed. Why was it always something with those two?

"Dave?" Jade inquired. "Can you help me out of my chair for a bit?"

"Yeah, sure," Dave responded, and lifted himself out of his own chair first, before taking her hand again to help her up out of hers.

"Thank you, my sweet knight." She planted a kiss on his cheek, before she grabbed him more roughly by the back of his collar and started taking him out of the room, as if on a leash.

Dave gestured at this action and mouthed back at the two other guys,

'Irony.'

Dirk snorted.


	3. Two Paths

After they had left the room, Dave managed to twist himself around to walking position, so he was no longer being dragged, although Jade still held his collar.

"Yo, Jade, mind if you tell me where we're going?" Dave asked her. "Not that surprise field trips aren't all hells of interesting. Like one of Jake's dumb adventure movies. We going to go raid a tomb? And bring him back a skull or something as a pres-"

"Bathroom," she answered simply, cutting off one of his bullshitting sessions. Dave stopped up for a second, but continued walking very shortly at the tug off his collar. "You are going to be a sweetheart and help my pregnant ass off the toilet so I don't have to use the counter. But mostly you are going to stop arguing with Dirk."

"We weren't arguing," Dave countered, shoving his hands in his pockets. "We were just messing with each other."

"You were deliberately saying things to get on his nerves."

"So? We do that all the time, you know that. If we were really angry, it would end with a fist in someone's face. Or a sword. You know we-"

He cut his words off as he felt her stop and let go off his collar. He looked at her to find her arms crossed, wrapped around her belly. Her eyes looked sad. His brow furrowed as he tried to figure out what he said wrong.

"I really wish you wouldn't do that." Her fingers curled tightly around her clothing as she spoke.

"No- Wait- Jade- I-" Stupid, stupid, stupid. "I didn't mean it like that. We aren't going to fight like that anymore, I promise." He used a finger to tilt her head up to look at him. Then he felt even stupider, because he realized she couldn't see how serious he was or not because eyes were still hidden as always behind his stupid awesome ironic shades. He used his other hand to shove them down a bit for a moment. "I promise," he repeated.

She sighed heavily. "I know," she told him. "I know you get along and you mess with each other. And I know you want a better childhood for our baby as much as I do. I just...I don't know...this whole pregnancy thing messes with my head sometimes. I get..."

"All weird and hormonal? Like Mama Bear. All guarding the cave. Can't let those Strider guys mess with her cubs. That growl be sending chills down your spine. Running off with your tail between your legs before she really even gets started."

She cracked a smile there, and reached out to him. And he was there in moments, arms wrapped around her, and hers around him. They held each other for awhile, until Jade's urgency increased enough that she was rushing him to the bathroom again.

~

"Now where the frig do you think they went off to?" Jake asked. He slumped down a bit, resting his chin on Dirk's shoulder.

"Couldn't say," Dirk answered. "Maybe they went to off to get you a skull for a present."

"..."

"You could kiss it." Dirk's eyebrow raised in a way that almost seemed suggestive.

Jake stood up once more and crossed his arms across his chest.

Dirk puckered his lips teasingly.

"Oh blast it, Dirk! Am I ever going to li-"

"No."

Jake sat down in a huff, but then started laughing.

"Jade just probably didn't like how Dave and I were acting," Dirk continued more seriously. "I wouldn't be surprised if I'm not even invited over once the baby comes. Since I'm so violent and all."

"Oh malarkey!" Jake countered. "It's not like you can't control yourself."

"I don't know. Ask Dave," Dirk commented offhandedly.

"That is such hogwash! Even if it was like that, that wasn't really you! It was completely different circumstances in a different universe. We've talked about this."

"Yeah, we have talked about this," Dirk agreed without agreeing. "And it could have been. Do you really think we'd be all that different? With my interests and your...wandering attentions? Violent and Negligent. Not great."

"I think we could do a mighty bit better than that, with all that we know. How badly could we possibly fuck up?"

"Well, maybe we should just concentrate that on being really rad uncles," Dirk told him, not directly answering his question. "And maybe...just maybe...if Dave and Jade actually trust us enough to babysit or something, we can talk about this again."

Jake's eyes lit up like crazy then. "You mean it really? You aren't just yanking my chain, are you?"

"You're acting like they are actually likely to do that," Dirk looked at him with one eyebrow raised.

"My Hope burns eternal!"


	4. Converge

When Dave and Jade returned to the room, Jade immediately made an apology, "Sorry we kept you waiting so long!"

"Not a problem, Jade," Dirk told her. "If I had an issue with spending time alone with Jake, I think I'd have to seriously reconsider our relationship."

Jade gave a small laugh at that as Dave helped her sit back down.

"I'm going to go make myself some coffee," Dave announced. "Anyone else want?"

"I'll have some," answered Jake.

"Nah, but you can get me a soda," Dirk responded right after.

Dave looked at the other Strider again. "You can get your own soda. You know where the fuck it is." Jade shot him a warning glance and he corrected himself. "I mean sure, I can get you a soda. Sure, I'm up. I only have two hands, but whatever. You know. Maybe I can just pluck myself from the future to help out." He paused a moment to reflect on what he'd said. "Fuck I can actually do that."

Jade was laughing. "Captchalogue it?"

"Fuck no. I'm not dealing with that shit right now. Whatever, yo. What's the use of having God powers if you never use them?"

He took off to the kitchen and moments later peeked his head back around. "You want anything, Jade?"

She was grinning and bubbling up with almost-laughter. "Water, please?"

"Yep." His head disappeared from the doorway.

"Thanks, Dave!" She shouted after him.

She turned back to face the other two. "So talk about anything interesting while we were gone?" she asked casually.

The question was met with silence from Dirk and "Well...uh..." from Jake.

Her face dropped a bit, and her mouth formed a little 'o', but then she turned her face away slightly quickly, flustered. "I- I didn't mean to pry or anything! If it was private..."

"You aren't bothering us any, Jade," Dirk told her. "It's just not anything that we need to reiterate. Anyway, for all you know, we could have just been macking on each other the entire time."

"We weren't!" Jake protested.

"Not that it would have mattered if we did. But we were perfect angels." Dirk put the palms of his hands together, as if in prayer.

Jade laughed into her hand.

"Apparently I'm missing out on some choice entertainment," came Dave's voice as he reentered.

There were two Daves, although only one of them spoke, both had two drinks in their hands. Three pairs of eyes stared at them. "Yeah, that's right. I am a fucking expert of just sort of picking things up. Bow before your master, bitches."

Jade's laugh picked back up from where it hadn't quite ended.

As the drinks were deposited on the table, one of the Daves doubled back and disappeared, the other remained and sat down.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, so this was the last bit of this fic I wrote on my tumblr. That was...3 months ago. Obviously, I'm pretty far removed from it by now, so here's the deal. Where should I go with this? It was just a sort of freeform I thought of dialogue then wrote it thing, so essentially it has no real plot and therefore I don't really know how the heck to end it, or what.
> 
> So what should I do? Is there a way for me to wrap this up so it makes some sort of sense to end it in that place? Or are there any ideas to inject actual plot into this story?
> 
> Open to suggestion, plot bunnies, prompts, what have you. Here or katanahime at tumblr.
> 
> Thank you.


End file.
